I'm thinking this isn't a problem; it has gotten lots of support historically. So we're going to go ahead and do it, so the company Amazon account is still getting some use, and we benefit a little.

To be clear: from this point on, all Amazon links posted on all sites will automatically be rewritten to add our affiliate link. We have a clever affiliate redirect that geolocates the IP address and redirects to the appropriate regional Amazon store (amazon.uk, amazon.ca, et cetera).

If you have any feedback on this, or suggestions, as they say … speak now or forever hold your peace!

At 2009 it made a lot of sense but does it still do so much now, since SE is already officially running ads all over the place? I never felt it was fair that SE gets to the keep all the profit, while the person who actually used his time to provide the answer and reference gets nothing instead. Of course I get that the current ads might still be in an exploratory stage, but this link swapping just feels a bit weird now that SE is having commercial operations running already, though maybe in other forums they do co-exist sometimes?
– xjiAug 26 '16 at 16:35

1

The part that feels bad to me about this is that it happens without anyone [read: author and reader/clicker] realizing it's happening. I suppose it's not too big of an objection and I don't really know how to fix it. Still, it feels a bit off.
– JasperDec 5 '18 at 17:41

Yeah, I was wondering about that also. Many "Can you recommend a book" questions I would think get answered with affiliate links. I think it would be appropriate to maintain the poster's affiliate link, since it is their referral and all.
– squillmanOct 22 '09 at 20:59

29

we don't allow affiliate accounts, any more than we allow people to post overtly commercial links to their own stuff. In your own profile, you are free to do that of course.
– Jeff AtwoodOct 22 '09 at 21:00

3

Or does the whole "it's their referral" thing become null and void with the cc-wiki license?
– squillmanOct 22 '09 at 21:02

@JeffAtwood I tried including an affiliate link in my profile, and it got replaced by one to the Amazon account when I clicked on it. Has this policy changed to not allow personal affiliate links in profiles?
– tcrosleyMar 28 '16 at 5:33

I just think this should be in the faq somehow. This kind of behavior should be transparent to new users in my opinion - if you don't agree, don't post. I think users have the right to know what you're planning to do with their data - or a jQuery box saying "this link is going to be SOfied. Click here for more information".

Actually, I do believe some other information about the system should be in the faq and not "dispersed" here in meta. Is there any plan to complement the faq?

I think I agree that this particular piece of information should be in the FAQ, I don't necessarily agree with putting everything in there. What you don't want is pages and pages of FAQs that nobody reads and therefore everybody ignores the "rules". Have the important stuff there with links out to specific questions here on meta or a search for posts tagged faq
– ChrisF♦Nov 6 '09 at 21:58

2

I didn't said to put everything in faq... Your solution to put various links for example in the faq with some important information linked here in meta is a good one in my opinion. I just think all information related to content/copyright and user's content usage by SO should be in the faq. I was concerned about this in this topic too: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/24611/….
– GmonCNov 7 '09 at 3:13

I would love, love, love to see the affiliate-link conversion migrated over to the Stack Exchange platform. Can you make sure that your affiliate ID is in an easily configurable location so, hopefully, the Stack Exchange folks can integrate that functionality into their release?

Could you please announce this on the Stack Overflow site? I'm getting downvoted by people who don't know that this is now in place and think that I'm trying to point people myself. Yep, I know, they should just look at the redirected URL.

So it's OK for people to post helpful links that also make you money but not themselves? That doesn't seem fair. Why not only replace affiliate links a percentage of the time? That way everyone gets rewarded.

you can post whatever affiliate links you like in your user profile page. This has never been allowed in questions and answers.
– Jeff AtwoodNov 6 '09 at 16:52

3

@JeffAtwood I know you're inactive and this was 10 years ago, but that doesn't address the point; this 'feature' is still making money for the company off of user contributions (that in and of itself is ethically wrong), by doing something that you don't allow users to do (doubly ethically wrong), and not even telling them when you do it (triply wrong).
– TylerHDec 5 '18 at 17:39

Should there be an easier "add book" function that would do the cover image and an amazon link?

Now that SE extends beyond programmer-programmer long tail technical questions recommending a book (eg in the English.se site) is going to be a lot more common AND you will ave more users who can't as easily work out how to make a clean amazon link or get a book cover image